Olivier Roy Makes Pro Debut In Overtime Loss / A Game Recap

FALCONS EARN A POINT IN PROVIDENCE

April 9, 2010 - The Springfield Falcons earned a point on the road on Friday night losing to the Providence Bruins 3-2 in overtime at the Dunkin Donuts Center. Providence's Kirk MacDonald scored in the extra session giving Providence the win. Falcons rookie goaltender Olivier Roy stopped 30 of 33 shots in his AHL/pro debut.

LIVE BOX SCORE

"I thought Olivier (Roy) was good tonight in his debut," said Falcons head coach Rob Daum. "He made some key stops and overall it was a nice first pro game for him."

The Falcons held a 2-1 lead entering the third period before Providence's Jeff LoVecchio tied the score at 2-2 with his 14th goal of the year at 11:43 of the final frame.

The Falcons looked like a team battling for a playoff spot instead of the Bruins in the first period as Chris Minard gave Springfield a 1-0 lead with his 19th goal of the year at 11:46 of the opening frame. Springfield outshot Providence 18-5 in the first period, including 12-2 midway through the stanza.

In the second period, Providence tied the score at 1-1 when Steve Kampfer scored on the power play at 3:11 of the middle frame. The Falcons regained their lead at 2-1 when Ryan O'Marra scored his 11th marker of the campaign at 15:52 of the second period.

For the second straight game, Springfield's Colin McDonald dropped the gloves, this time with Providence's Doug Nolan.

Along with Roy, Chris Vande Velde and Ryan Donald also made their pro/AHL debuts.

FALCONS LINEUP

Jesse Gimblett - Rob Hisey - Colton Fretter
Slava Trukhno - Chris Vande Velde - Liam Reddox
Blair Riley - Ryan O'Marra - Colin McDonald
Chris Minard - Chad Wiseman - Jordan Eberle

Chris Armstrong - Johan Motin
Ryan Donald - Jake Taylor
Eddie Del Grosso - Jeff Petry

Olivier Roy
Bryan Pitton

FALCONS SCRATCHES - Matt Nickerson, Ryan MacMurchy, Geoff Paukovich, Bryan Lerg, Alex Plante, Kip Brennan, Tony DeHart, Matt Beca

PRE-GAME NOTES

The most recent roster additions for the Falcons are forward Chris Vande Velde and defenseman Ryan Donald. Donald recently concluded his four-year college career at Yale University and Vande Velde also recently concluded his senior season after spending the previous four years at the University of North Dakota. Donald was not drafted and joins the Falcons on an Amateur Tryout Agreement. Vande Velde also signed an ATO, but was drafted by Edmonton in the fourth round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.

Vande Velde and Donald join Olivier Roy, Blair Riley, Jesse Gimblett, Jeff Petry, Eddie Del Grosso, Matt Beca, and Jordan Eberle as rookies who have joined the Falcons down the stretch after their respective college or junior hockey seasons came to an end.

Providence still continues to have an outside chance of earning the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, although they do need many things to go their way. The Bruins have 76 points, six points behind both Bridgeport and Norfolk for the final playoff spot, with three games remaining in the regular season. Providence needs to have Bridgeport, Norfolk and Hartford to lose their games this weekend, while Providence goes a perfect 3-0 to have a chance, but stranger things have occured.

The Falcons are winless in their last six games going 0-4-1-1 in that span with their last win happening back on March 20 at Hartford.

The Falcons will enter tonight's game with 15 AHL rookies on their roster. Springfield has had 60 different players added to their roster this year, the AHL record is 70 set by Providence 10 years ago.

Written by the Springfield Falcons

*Reprinted by Oilers Jambalaya with permission by the Springfield Falcons AHL Hockey Club. The Springfield Falcons are a proud affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers (NHL)*

The Light's Go Out In Rexall / Oilers vs Avs Game Recap

This is brief game recap of the Edmonton Oilers vs the Colorado Avalanche game on Sportsnet West.

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PRE GAME RECORDS

Colorado Avalanche (43-29-7) at Edmonton Oilers (25-46-8)

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FINAL SCORE

Colorado Avalanche - 4

Edmonton Oilers -5  ot

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TONIGHT'S STARTING LINES

Penner Potulny Cogliano
Comrie Stortini O'Sullivan
Moreau Horcoff Pisani
Jones Pouliot Linglet

Whitney Gilbert
Chorney Strudwick
Johnson Arsene

Deslauriers
Dubnyk

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VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS



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THE MEAT AND POTATOES

The Good:

- Dustin Penner took this team and ran with it. He was awesome! He had a goal and two assists in the 16:44 of ice time. I really hope we get the same guy next season. With a healthy team, adding a great player like Penner to it, it could only be great. Right? Right?!?

- Ryan Whitney scores the overtime winning goal all while not so silently leading the defensive corps. This guy has been a great pickup for the Oilers and some people are starting to think he's captain material. He had 5 shots to go with that goal but his best stat is his 27:25 of ice time. Maybe he should be the captain? He says and does all the right things. Hmmmm....

- Tom Gilbert once again played pretty good as he had two assists. I am starting to wonder if it's just Gilbert being good and figuring out the game, or is it just Whitney helping him look good.

- Andrew Cogliano was once again solid. He scored a goal and had an assist for a two point night.

- Mike Comrie had a chance at the end of the game to put it away. He didn't and it went to overtime. But he did score a goal earlier in the game and played OK. I like Mike. I've just always wondered why he's been the low minutes guy and not top six.

- Well, that sure was a great way to end the season at home. I'm sure the fans in attendence appreaciated it. GOILERS!!!

The Not So Good:

- Jeff Deslauriers was not very good tonight. He was flip flopping all over the place and never really looked comfortable in net. He's lucky the team won this game.

- Jason Strudwick is a really funny guy and he is a good teammate. He's just not very good at hockey. He made his usual three or four errors and overall, he didn't look very able out there. Amazingly enough, Quinn still had him out there late in the 3rd during a tie game. That Pat Quinn has a big set of nards.

- The Oilers lost 53% of the faceoffs tonight. I sure hope Tamby does something in that category. It's quite clear we can't go within the organisation for help.

- Dean Arsene was the only Oiler to take a penalty tonight. Mind you, he did it twice.

The Side Dish:

- No side dish tonight

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POST GAME VIDEO



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EVENT SUMMARY
GAME SUMMARY

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NEXT GAME

Edmonton Oilers vs Los Angeles Kings

Sat 10/04/2010

2:00 PM
Sportsnet West

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CLICK HERE TO READ THE LIVE TWEETCAST

-Written by Smokin' Ray-

The Last (Home) Stand / Colorado Avalanche (43-29-7) at Edmonton Oilers (25-46-8)

GAME DAY!!!

Welcome everyone to another fine TweetCast by Oilers Jambalaya.

Tonight you will see the tweets/comments of Paq Twinn, Smokin' Ray, Nick Walker, Scarlett, OilFieldHockey, Dan Tencer, The official Edmonton Oilers and the official Colorado Avalanche tweets as well as the tweets from the Springfield Falcons and the Stockton Thunder.

Feel free to comment by typing in the box below. It's easy and no signup required. Once you comment, we will unmoderate you and you can then speak freely. Be patient if we don't see you right away. You will get on.

We hope you enjoy the TweetCast and we are glad you stopped by.

Colorado Avalanche (43-29-7) at Edmonton Oilers (25-46-8)

Thunder Even Up Series With Win Over Alaska

GAME 2 RECAP: Stockton 5 - Alaska 2

04/06/2010 11:18 PM

FIT TO BE TIED
Thunder send series back to Stockton tied, 1-1 in four goal third period rally

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FINAL STATS: BOX SCORE
AUDIO: Game highlights


WASILLA, Alaska - A four goal effort in the third period, stamping a string of three unanswered goals, helped the Stockton Thunder sink the host the Alaska Aces in a 5-2 victory in Game 2 of the National Conference Quarterfinals of the 2010 Kelly Cup Playoffs at the Menard Memorial Sports Center on Tuesday.

The Thunder, who tied the best-of-five series, 1-1, return home to Stockton Arena for Game 3 on Friday. Forwards Kelly Czuy (1g-1a), Oren Eizenman (two assists), defensemen Anthony Aiello (1g-1a) and Jordan Bendfeld (two assists) all led the offense with two points apiece while goaltender Andrew Perugini made 28 saves.

STOCKTON VS. ALASKA - NATIONAL CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS
Game 1: Stockton 3 at Alaska 4
Game 2: Stockton 5 at Alaska 2
Game 3: Alaska at Stockton - Friday, April 9 - 7:30 p.m. (Stockton Arena)
Game 4: Alaska at Stockton - Saturday, April 10 - 7:30 p.m. (Stockton Arena)
Game 5: Alaska at Stockton - Monday, April 12 - 7:00 p.m. (Stockton Arena) *
* If necessary


"It's a huge win from the standpoint we needed to come up here and gain a split, giving us a chance going back to our own home ice," said Thunder head coach Matt Thomas. "I'm proud of the guys for how they responded."

The Thunder, who handed Alaska their fourth Game 2 loss in franchise history, improved to 2-3 in Game 2 situations.

Following a scoreless first period where the Thunder owned a 9-5 lead in shots on goal, Alaska responded with several scoring chances in front of Perugini but were thwarted on a diving glove save at the doorstep on the Aces' Jarrett Konkle with over six minutes into the period.

The pressure continued and after Alaska killed a 5-on-3 penalty kill, Ryan Turek sent the partisan crowd into eruption with his first goal of the postseason with 8:41 left when he corralled Brock McBride's feed at the left circle and slipped a wrist shot through traffic for a 1-0 lead.

The Thunder had a breakaway by Kelly Czuy negated on an offside call but continued to press and finally knotted the score, 1-1 on a Czuy shorthanded goal with less than 33.7 seconds left when he blasted a shapshot past Billy Sauer from the right wing.

Marquardt, who had fired eight shots in the game already, finally broke through with his first goal of the postseason to give the Thunder a 2-1 lead and stunning the Aces home crowd with 2:26 gone in the third period when his wrist shot from the right wing beat Sauer off the rush.

A power-play goal by Caudron, who knocked in a rebound at the right goal post, put the Thunder ahead, 3-1 with 13:46 remaining on his second goal of the playoffs after Sauer stopped Czuy's shot from the left circle.

Alaska crawled back into the game on a Bryan Miller goal from between the hash marks just 2:10 later, cutting the deficit to one.

Yet, Stockton restored the two-goal gap with Pitton's first goal of the playoffs, coming with 4:34 left when he re-directed Bendfeld's drive from the right point to the back of the net.

An empty-net goal by Aiello with 24.4 seconds remaining sealed the game, when he hit the back of the net on a 190-foot heave from his own defensive zone, completing the rally.

"We talked about momentum as a team and how it helps you in the playoffs," said Thomas. "We created a ton of it with a great goal at the end of the second. Then we came out with the right energy and had guys like Pitton and Marquardt scoring while our power play steps up. We did the little things that were needed to win and rally from a tie game, on the road, in the third period."

Sauer was tagged with the loss, making 26 saves for Alaska.

NOTES: The Thunder scratched Riley Emmerson (inactive list), Brett Hemingway (inactive list), Trevor Hunt (inactive list), Justin DaCosta (healthy) and Colin Hemingway (injury, day-to-day) ... the only other Game 2 win in Thunder history was at Ontario last year, a 6-5 win in the first round - Stockton went onto win the series in seven games ... the Thunder went 1-for-4 on the power-play and kept Alaska sealed at an 0-for-3 clip ... Czuy's multi-point game gave him 19 points in 15 career first rounds games with Stockton and Las Vegas.

The series moves to Stockton Arena for the remainder of the series and game three, between the Thunder and Aces, is at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The game can be viewed online exclusively at www.stocktonthunder.com, courtesy of B2 Networks (audio is free of charge).

The Thunder was voted "Best Local Sports Team" by readers of the San Joaquin Magazine, has led the ECHL in attendance for four consecutive seasons and drew 223,854 fans to Stockton Arena in 2008-09. Season Tickets for 2009-10 are on sale now. For more information about tickets, merchandise, or other inquiries contact the Stockton Thunder offices at (209) 373-1500 or visit http://www.stocktonthunder.com/  

THREE STARS:
1. STK - 34 Kelly Czuy
2. STK - 7 Anthony Aiello
3. STK - 9 Oren Eizenm

Vande Velde Signs ATO With Falcons (AHL)

VANDE VELDE SIGNS ATO WITH THE FALCONS

--Falcons re-assign Jordan Bendfeld To Stockton--

April 5, 2010 – The Springfield Falcons, proud members of the American Hockey League, announced today they have signed forward Chris Vande Velde to an Amateur Tryout Agreement. The Falcons also announced that defenseman Jordan Bendfeld has been re-assigned to their ECHL affiliate, the Stockton Thunder.

Vande Velde recently concluded his senior season at the University of North Dakota where he set a career high in scoring with 16 goals and 25 assists for 41 points in 42 games played. The 6-foot-2, 204-pound native of Moorhead, Minnesota collected 52 goals and 65 assists for 117 points in 166 games at North Dakota.

Bendfeld played in 10 games with Springfield posting one assist and seven penalty minutes.

Written by the Springfield Falcons

*Reprinted by Oilers Jambalaya with permission by the Springfield Falcons AHL Hockey Club. The Springfield Falcons are a proud affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers (NHL)*